Among the BRICS nations, South Africa was placed at 72nd position, followed by Russia (73), Brazil (77) and China (118).
EPI is a measure of how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues mainly in the areas of protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems.
The two objectives that provide the overarching structure of the 2014 EPI are Environmental Health and Ecosystem Vitality. A total of 178 nations in the index represent 99 per cent of the global population, 98 per cent of the world’s total land area, and 97 per cent of the global GDP.
Country with the highest EPI is Switzerland which is followed by Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore, and Czech Republic. The bottom five performers in the EPI are Somalia, Mali, Haiti, Lesotho, and Afghanistan. All the low performers are grappling with civil unrest, significant economic development pressures, and political turmoil. Urbanisation without sufficient investment in environmental safeguards is the key reason for emerging economies’ poor showing when it comes to air quality, biodiversity and habitat protection.
EPI has been made by Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as with support from the Samuel Family Foundation and the McCall MacBain Foundation.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is constructed through the calculation and aggregation of 20 indicators reflecting national-level environmental data. These indicators are combined into nine issue categories, each of which fit under one of two overarching objectives:
| Environmental Healthi) Health Impact a) Child Mortality ii) Air Quality a) Household Air Quality b) Air Pollution PM 2.5 Exposure iii) Water and Sanitation a) Access to Sanitation b) Access to drinking water | Ecosystem Vitalityiv) Water resources a) Wastewater treatment v) Agriculture a) Agricultural subsidies b) Pesticide regulation vi) Forests a) Change in Forest cover vii) Fisheries a) Coastal shelf fishing pressure b) Fish stock viii) Biodiversity and Habitat a) Terrestrial Protected Areas b) Critical Habitat Protection c) Marine Protected Areas ix) Climate and energy a) Climate + energy |
Image credit: Martinvl, hosted at Wikipedia
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